Write the circuit list first. Fall in love with a kilowatt-hour number later, if at all.

Updated August 26, 2026 · The Home Backup

If you skip the paper list, you will buy a handsome cabinet that cannot start the one load you cared about. The Home Backup treats buying as a sequence, not a vibe. Specs in this guide are dated August 26, 2026. Street prices move. Blank surge cells on the 120 V cores stay blank because manufacturer pages conflicted or were unclear.

1. List every load that must stay on, with running watts and whether it is 120 V or 240 V.
2. Mark starting watts for compressors, pumps, and anything with a motor.
3. Estimate watt-hours per outage for that list, then add a dull margin.
4. Decide the house hook: extension cords only, or inlet plus interlock / listed transfer switch.
5. Pick chemistry and expansion you can actually buy, not a slide.
6. Plan recharge the same week: wall AC and, if the grid stays down, portable panels.

Circuit list

Walk the panel with a notepad. Lights are cheap in watts and do not decide the SKU. The deciding loads are refrigeration, well or booster pumps, sump, furnace air handler, medical devices, and anything you insist on heating with. Write nameplate watts where you can read them. For a fridge, a clamp meter during a start is better than a brochure, but a conservative guess plus a test before the storm is the minimum.

Group the list into “must,” “nice,” and “off.” Off should include the range, the dryer, and most resistance heat unless you have a generator-sized plan. A 3,840 Wh F3800 running a 1,500 W heater is an evening, not a weekend. Extra batteries stretch must-list hours. They do not make the nice-list free.

Fridge-class draw is often 150–250 W once spinning, with a short surge several times that. A microwave is a short 1,000 W punch. Modem plus Wi-Fi is small and worth protecting. CPAPs are often happier on DC; check the device. None of these numbers replace your nameplates.

120 V versus 240 V

This is the filter that saves the most money. Read the motor or the breaker. A double-pole breaker is a hint, not a proof, but it is where you look. Wells, many dryers, and many air handlers want 240 V. A 120 V core cannot feed them. Stacking BLUETTI modules toward 8,192 Wh does not change that. Adding Jackery Battery Pack 2000 Plus does not change that.

On this desk, split-phase is the Anker SOLIX F3800: 120/240 V, 6,000 W continuous, 9,000 W surge, 3,840 Wh, 132.3 lb, LFP, expandable yes, $2,199.98 on August 26, 2026. The 120 V cores are the AC200L (2,048 Wh, 2,400 W, 62.4 lb, $899) and the Explorer 2000 Plus (2,042.8 Wh, 3,000 W, 61.5 lb, $899, was $2,199). Full SKU notes: F3800 review, AC200L, Explorer 2000 Plus.

Surge on the two cores is blank in our tables. Do not invent a peak number from a forum screenshot. Confirm the live manufacturer page for your compressor. The F3800’s 9,000 W surge is listed; still confirm locked-rotor against that number instead of assuming a well will be polite.

Transfer switch and inlet

Extension cords are honest. They also trip people, overload cheap strips, and leave you running a fridge in the dark with a door that will not stay shut. If you want wall circuits live, pay for a listed path:

• Inlet box plus interlock on the panel, so the utility main and the inlet cannot both feed the bus.
• Listed transfer switch or a managed critical-loads panel, sized and labeled.
• Not a dryer-outlet backfeed cord. That is how you energize a downed line.

The F3800’s reason to exist is the split-phase hook. That is electrician work in almost every US jurisdiction. The 120 V cores can still feed an inlet on a critical-loads subset if the electrician designs it that way — they still will not create a missing 240 V leg. Budget the visit before you budget a second battery pack. A legal interconnect on a $899 core can cost as much as the core. That does not make the core a bad product. It makes the install the product.

LiFePO4 / LFP

Prefer lithium iron phosphate (labeled LiFePO4 or LFP) for home-backup cycling unless you have a specific reason not to. All three named kits here use that chemistry family: Jackery lists LiFePO4 on the Explorer 2000 Plus; Anker lists LFP on the F3800. We quote nameplate watt-hours because that is what the cart shows. Runtime estimates in copy stay conservative. Do not plan on 100% discharge, and do not treat cycle-life marketing as a warranty substitute.

Chemistry does not fix voltage. Chemistry does not fix a missing transfer switch. Chemistry does help if you expect to cycle the pack through flickers rather than leave it on a shelf for five years and hope. Storage still wants a dry place, manufacturer temperature limits, and a periodic top-up. A basement that floods is a bad home for any of these cabinets. Casters on the F3800 are for flat floors, not standing water.

Recharge

Capacity without recharge is a single outage. Wall AC is the default recovery when the grid is flapping. Read the AC input rate on the live product page; we are not inventing inlet watts here. If the outage is long and the grid is truly gone, you need sun or a generator. Portable panels are silo 4. They are not a roof.

Match brand cables when you can: SolarSaga into Jackery, SP200L into BLUETTI, PS400 into Anker SOLIX. Open-circuit voltage must stay under the station’s solar maximum, with margin for cold sun. We left Voc blank on the SolarSaga 200W and the PS400 because manufacturer pages conflicted or were unclear. We did not invent a number. The SP200L lists 24.6 V Voc — still check series wiring before you stack. Panel rules: portable solar panel buying guide.

Night outages are a battery problem. Buying panels to “solve” a four-hour evening is how people overspend. Buying no recharge path for a three-day ice storm is how people discover finite kWh the hard way. See battery vs standby if fuel runtime is the honest need.

Apply it to F3800 vs the 120 V cores

Worked examples, not trophies:

Must-list is fridge, network, lighting, CPAP, all 120 V, outages of hours. Either 120 V core is in class. Explorer 2000 Plus if you want 3,000 W continuous and the Battery Pack 2000 Plus / SolarSaga path. AC200L if the published climb toward 8,192 Wh is the point and you will live at 2,400 W continuous. Test fridge surge. Do not assume the blank surge cell is large.

Must-list includes a 240 V well or a split-phase inlet you already intend to install. F3800, or a standby generator. The cores are the wrong aisle. Read the F3800 review for weight and the 3,840 Wh tank. If the well plus heat pump must run for days without sun, the engine path on whole-house generators is the grown-up answer.

Must-list is “the house as usual,” including HVAC. None of these kits are a pad plant. Expandable batteries still have an inverter ceiling. The F3800’s 6,000 W is a lot for a station and not a lot for a 4-ton condenser. Shed or go standby.

Anker SOLIX

F3800

Split-phase home hook. Heavy. Not a pad generator.

Capacity

3,840 Wh

Output

6,000 W

Surge / peak

9,000 W

Voltage

120 / 240 V

$2,199.98

Street price on the manufacturer page, August 26, 2026. Sales move.

See F3800 price

BLUETTI

AC200L

Same ~2 kWh job as the Jackery, with a modular extra-battery path.

Capacity

2,048 Wh

Output

2,400 W

Voltage

120 V

Weight

62.4 lb

$899

Street price on the manufacturer page, August 26, 2026. Sales move.

See BLUETTI price

Jackery

Explorer 2000 Plus

Fridge and essentials on 120 V. Extra packs if the outage lasts.

Capacity

2,042.8 Wh

Output

3,000 W

Voltage

120 V

Weight

61.5 lb

$899 $2,199

Street price on the manufacturer page, August 26, 2026. Sales move.

See Jackery price

Method: how we review. Questions: contact.